


Meant To Be a Two

by gottabekiddinme



Series: Trickster Town [4]
Category: Mythology - Fandom, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Children, Feels, Gen, How Loki & Eris met, Male-Female Friendship, Siblings, THERE WILL BE FEELS I TELL YOU, Wee!Eris, Wee!Loki
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-16
Updated: 2013-03-19
Packaged: 2017-11-21 05:46:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 2,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/594128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gottabekiddinme/pseuds/gottabekiddinme
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He is hers, and she is his, and they have always been meant to be what they are.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Celebrating the end of the semester with new fic! Title is from "A Duo" from An American Tail (so was the title of A Pair of Lonely Ones, this is a direct companion to that).

Eris doesn’t like going to see her father’s friends. Odin frightens her a little bit, and Frigga is nice, but Eris isn’t really used to nice. It makes her nervous.

She ducks out when they’re talking about grown up things and finds the courtyard. That’s where she sees the boys. Two of them. One is blond and brawny, the other dark and lean, with laughter in his face. Unfortunately, he seems to be laughing at the blond’s expense. The blond stalks away and Eris judges it safe to approach.

“Hello.” She grins. “I’m Eris.” She offers her hand.

He shakes it. “I’m Loki.”

She jerks a thumb over her shoulder. “Who was that?”

“Thor.” He makes a face. “My brother.”

She nods wisely. “I have some of those. Sisters, too.” They commiserate over their siblings (“Apollo’s only my HALF brother; I don’t know why he’s so bossy!”) and have moved on to their favourite pranks (“You should have seen Sif’s face!”) when Thor returns, having apparently decided to overreact.

Her only warning is a slight crackle behind her before she spins, catches the lightning bolt aimed at her new friend (it’s really a very small one, no bigger than the ones her father gives her to play with) and slams it back into Thor’s face, aiming for his nose.

It hits the target, shooting straight up his right nostril, she notes happily as Loki takes her by the arm and they run off, laughing. Thor is howling in outrage and pain, and they’re all going to be in so much trouble later, but really, who cares? Eris has finally found someone to laugh with.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eris has kids, too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I get more writing done during the semester. How about that? :) Next chapter (the Lokibabies) should be up by Monday.

Do they think her bereft of a mother’s feelings? No. Obviously not, or they’d have done it openly. They have at least had the self-preservation to leave her alone.

Unlike whoever is behind her now. Eris turns, ready to attack, but lowers her hands when she sees who it is. 

“Loki.” She runs to him, throwing her arms around his waist and burying her face in his chest. He wraps his own arms around her and just holds her, silently, and she finally allows herself to cry. After a while he lifts her face to look at him.

“Tell me.” 

And so she does. She tells him about Prometheus and his gift of fire to humanity, a gift stolen from Olympus. She tells him about her father’s desire to punish the Titan, and about Pandora, the perfect woman with one fatal flaw. “She’s curious.” Eris spits bitterly. “There’s not a box she won’t peek into or a door she won’t open.”

“And this has what to do with you?” 

She scowls. She has to, or she would crumble again. “This morning I woke to find my children gone.”

“All of them?”

“Yes. All fourteen.”

His arms tighten around her. He, too, is a parent. “And?”

“And my father told me his plan. To gather up all the most terrible things in the world and put them in a sealed jar,” She’s speaking through gritted teeth now, “and give that jar to Pandora.”

“Who, out of curiosity, will open it.” 

“Thus allowing them to run rampant over the earth.” She plants her face in his chest again. “I don’t know what hurts more, that he just took them…”

“Or that they were the worst things he could think of.”

They are terrible. She knows this. How could they be otherwise, with Chaos for a mother? But when they are freed, when she can hold them again, she will have to explain why their grandfather chose to use them as punishment. That he fears them. 

What will that do to them?

Loki offers no advice, no commiseration. He just holds her, allows her to be vulnerable and grieve as she does not dare to do with anyone else. Here, alone with her best friend, she can cry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A) Eris did have 14 children in mythology: Algea (Pains), Amphillogias (Disputes), Androktasias (Manslaughters), Ate (Blindness), Dysnomia (Lawlessness), Horkos (Oath), Hysimnai (Battles), Lethe (Forgetfulness), Limos (Starvation), Logos (Words), Machai (Quarrels), Neikea (Grievances), Phonoi (Murders), and Ponos (Hardship). I've never seen their father named.  
> B) Eris is sometimes referred to as the daughter of Nyx (Night), but I prefer Homer's idea of her as Ares' sister and therefore the daughter of Zeus and Hera.  
> C) The original story of Pandora's jar (and it was originally a JAR, not a box) doesn't specify what evils were in it, but look at that list. It makes sense to me that it would be Eris' children.


	3. Chapter 3

Eris wants very badly to storm up the Bifrost and start hurting people. Instead, she takes more than usual care with her appearance – she must look like the goddess she is – and calmly, sedately, glides her way up to Heimdall and pauses beside him.

“Where is he?”

“I cannot see him.” His eyes slide to meet hers. “But he has not left Asgard.”

Which means that Loki is in one of their secret places, specially warded – by her – against the gatekeeper’s all seeing eyes. He pretends not to know, and she appreciates that. With a nod, Eris leaves him and walks toward the courtyard where they first met. 

No one stops her. She has come to Asgard often enough that they know better, or perhaps her face is frightening them off. Thor tries to greet her, seemingly not understanding that he has done something wrong, but a cold stare sends him lumbering away.

Eris has never liked Thor. He disgusts her now.

She turns a corner or two, slips through a pair of pillars and there he is. Loki is sitting on a bench, face in his hands, and looks up when she approaches.

She sits and puts an arm around his shoulders. “I tried.”

He lets out a long, shuddering breath. “I suspected they might have warded him against you.” He shifts so that he can rest his head on her shoulder. “And the others?”

“I can’t remove Jormungandr from the sea, but Triton has agreed to check in on him from time to time.” Eris takes one of Loki’s hands and holds it in her lap. “And Persephone has found a pathway between Hades and Helheim.” Actually, Persephone is thrilled at the idea of a female friend among the gods of the dead, and Triton and Jormungandr are already getting along famously. But Eris is not sure that Loki needs to hear that right now. 

“Nothing can be done for Fenrir, though.”

She honestly has no idea how to answer. She can’t tell them that they almost had it, that Kratos could have freed Fenrir if not for Thor’s sword through his face. Instead she runs the fingers of her free hand through Loki’s hair. 

“If he just hadn’t bitten Tyr’s hand off.”

“The way I heard it,” She keeps her voice low and his hand in hers. “Tyr offered. They made him an oath.”  
“And broke it.”

Eris doesn’t need to ask if this is one of Odin’s clumsy attempts to avert Ragnarok. The Norse have not yet learned that the harder you fight your fate, the faster it comes for you.

Loki buries his face in her shoulder. “At least Sleipnir remains in Asgard.” 

As a willing slave, Eris doesn’t say. She has seen Loki sad. He was sad when Angrboda left him. But this, this is Loki shattered, a father in mourning, and he has lost his children more surely and permanently than she ever did. So she does the only thing she can think to do.

She holds him.


	4. Chapter 4

Loki smirks as Eris examines the apple. “I promise you. It’s the equal of anything in the Hesperides.”

“Obviously, dearest, but I do hope it’s not too like.” She flicks her eyes up to meet his. “Why would anybody want it if they knew where to find a thousand identical ones?”

“Idunn’s apples are unlike any others.” He assures her. Loki tilts his head and narrows his eyes at Eris. “What do you want it for, anyway?”

She shrugs. “It’s a wedding gift. For Thetis and Peleus.”

He frowns. “I thought you weren’t invited.” 

“I’m not. I’m going anyway. If they let me in, it’s a gift.”

“And if they don’t?”

She tosses the apple into the air and catches it, with a smile that he would find terrifying if he didn't know that it was just like his own. “They’ll wish they had.”

It’s not until several days later that he sees her again, wandering up the Bifrost and giving Heimdall an absent nod. 

“So, sweetheart?” Loki smiles, the mischievous smirk that he knows only she finds endearing. “How did it go?”

She glares at him. “As if you didn’t know.”

The smirk widens into a grin. “A war, darling? Over an apple?”

“ I've never claimed my people were brilliant.”

“It’s not the Midgardians I’m thinking of, it’s your mother.” He chuckles. “And your sister-in-law. And your sister, I thought Athena was wiser than that?”

“So did I.” Eris grumbles, but a smile is playing around her lips.

“You have to tell me,” They've wandered into a garden and Loki sits on a low wall, grinning up at her. “What did you do with that apple?” 

She shrugs. “I just…tossed it into the wedding party.”

“And you didn't, oh, alter it or anything?” 

That same terrifying smile spreads over her face. “I may have, ah, written something on it.”

“Written what?”

She throws out her arms and spreads her hands. “’For the Fairest’!” Eris laughs, spins and throws herself down beside Loki. “I knew Aphrodite would lunge for it, and of course Mother wouldn’t stand for that.” She frowns. “I did think Athena had more dignity, though.”

“And the mortals?” He says it quietly.

Her frown deepens. “I didn't expect them to be dragged into it. I just wanted a bit of fun, a ruined wedding, not…” But it seems all her fun gets twisted, turned ugly in ways she doesn't anticipate or desire. 

“Well.” He flings an arm around her waist. “I think you’ll be invited to the next party.”

Her laughter rings around the garden.


	5. Chapter 5

Loki sits alone in the dark, concentrating on breathing through his nose, in, out, in, out. He knows that Sigyn is outside, pacing up and down the hall, pausing at his door and always hesitantly moving on.

He hears more footsteps, three sets, two of them unfamiliar. The third set he knows almost as well as his own. The new footsteps pause and join Sigyn’s steps, then come to his door. He can hear their voices, two female, two male, murmuring just low enough that he can’t hear them clearly.

One of them tries the door. It’s locked, of course. The cracks around the door glow for a moment, a warm golden light, but he does in fact have the sense to ward his door and this attempt, too, is unsuccessful.

But even he can’t ward against an angry chaos goddess. He tries to turn away as Eris steps through the smoking remains of his door frame, flanked by two golden haired males who could not be more obviously Olympian if they tried. 

“Don’t you dare, Loki.” She drags a chair beside his bed and sits in it, grabbing him by the shoulders and forcing him to face her. Her dark eyes search his face, filled with compassion but no pity. She knows he won’t accept pity even from her. One of the men behind her hisses.

“Well, Asclepius?” She snaps. 

The man on the right comes forward and lifts Loki’s chin with a firm hand. He huffs. “This is a bit savage.”  
“You’re not here for commentary.”

Asclepius runs a gentle finger around Loki’s mouth, carefully not touching the stitches. “This will be easier with two pairs of hands.” He glances at the other man. “One to physically remove the stitches and one to heal behind him.”

“Hermes?” Eris turns to the man still behind her. 

“Certainly.” He comes forward. Asclepius takes a bundle from his pocket and unwraps a small, gleaming blade.

She slides her hands from his shoulders to his hands and holds them in her lap. “Focus on me, as much as you can.” She smirks. “Squeeze my right hand for yes, left for no. Have we learned anything from this experience?”

He squeezes her right hand, a bit harder than necessary. Yes, he has learned to keep well clear of dwarves. 

She chuckles. “I notice that Sigyn has been standing guard. Has she been there all day?”

He squeezes her right hand again, gently this time.

“She’s sweet.” Unlike Angrboda, she doesn’t say. “You should talk to her later, the poor thing was afraid you might be slowly bleeding to death.”

Is that why she called for you, he wants to ask. Sigyn has always been a little in awe of Eris, which may account for her reluctance to approach him.

“Perhaps you should approach her, instead of waiting for her to do it.” Eris knows him far too well. “If you two don’t stop dancing around each other soon I may go mad.”

He can’t hold back the laugh and it _hurts._


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, it's been a while.

Eris has always had the best toys, and Midgard’s twenty-first century is no exception. Loki grins at the sight of his sons playing Rock Band with Eris’ daughter Ate, who has long been their favourite babysitter. Vali has in fact declared that he intends to marry the (by Olympian standards) teenager, an announcement which delighted Eris.

“Just imagine,” she had chuckled, nudging Loki in his side, “we’d be related.”

Sigyn had thrown up her hands and declared that Ragnarok was nigh.

He looks away from the children, at Eris and Sigyn talking by the window in low tones. He frowns a little, suspecting the topic of conversation. Eris told him about the Avengers’ visit to Los Angeles, and Sigyn requested details. He goes to join them and catches the end of Eris’ story.

“You took food from Thor’s plate?” Sigyn’s eyebrows are raised. 

Eris chuckles. “Really, that’s what you take away?”

“She’s seen Thor eat.” Loki smirks and watches his two favourite women roll their eyes.

“I must say,” Eris sips at her retsina. “I’m surprised Thor fits in with the others. They seem…”

“Smart?”

“Well. Smarter than him anyway.” She shrugs. “I think Coyote’s interested in talking to their Captain again.”

Loki thinks about this for a moment, then nods. “Veterans of the same war. It might be good for Coyote. For both of them.”

“And Puck is bound and determined to make the archer a movie star.”

“That one he’ll have difficulty with.” He winces.

“It’ll be good for him not to get what he wants.”

“Puck or the archer?”

“Either one.” She takes another sip, watching Loki with calculating eyes. Sigyn excuses herself to watch the boys, leaving him and Eris alone by the window.

“We offered them a bargain.”

“I know.”

“They were smart enough to take it.”

“I know that too.”

“You’re going to have to talk to us, Loki. We need everything you can tell us about Thanos.”

He sighs, nods again. “Of course. Tomorrow.”

She nods back. “Tomorrow.”

Not tonight. Tonight is for him and her and their families.

For Mischief, and Chaos, and best friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that wraps up this one. I can't see Cap and Coyote being besties, but a drink now and then while they reminisce? Absolutely. 
> 
> Regarding Thor's intelligence...the truth is, Loki and Eris ARE smarter than him. And honestly? If I'd had to choose the Norse god that fit in best with the Avengers (especially Tony), based on mythology, I'd have gone with Loki - clever, sneaky, volatile. Although the volatile part leads him to cause serious trouble. Handwave away the death of Balder and what comes after, and yeah - much better fit, IMO. Although I may be biased because Loki's my favourite.


End file.
